e fortune left by his father naturally going to his mother during
her life). His earnings had since 1887 been considerable, at the rate of
L4,000 a year or thereabouts; but his building expenses and large mode
of life at Vailima, together with his habitual generosity, which scarce
knew check or limit, towards the less fortunate of his friends and
acquaintances in various parts of the world, made his expenditure about
equal to his income. The idea originally entertained of turning part of
the Vailima estate into a profitable plantation turned out chimerical.
The thought began to haunt him, What if his power of earning were soon
to cease? And occasional signs of inward depression and life-weariness
began to appear in his correspondence. But it was only in writing, and
then but rarely, that he let such signs appear: to those about him he
retained the old affectionate charm and inspiring gaiety undiminished,
fulfilling without failure the words of his own prayer, "Give us to
awake with smiles, give us to labour smiling; as the sun lightens the
world, so let our loving-kindness make bright this house of our
habitation."

TO SIDNEY COLVIN

_[Vailima] January 1893._

MY DEAR COLVIN,--You are properly paid at last, and it is like you will
have but a shadow of a letter. I have been pretty thoroughly out of
kilter; first a fever that would neither come on nor go off, then acute
dyspepsia, in the weakening grasp of which I get wandering between the
waking state and one of nightmare. Why the devil does no one send me
Atalanta? And why are there no proofs of _D. Balfour_? Sure I should
have had the whole, at least the half, of them by now; and it would be
all for the advantage of the Atalantans. I have written to Cassell & Co.
(matter of _Falesa_) "you will please arrange with him" (meaning you).
"What he may decide I shall abide." So consider your hand free, and act
for me without fear or favour. I am greatly pleased with the
illustrations. It is very strange to a South-Seayer to see Hawaiian
women dressed like Samoans, but I guess that's all one to you in
Middlesex. It's about the same as if London city men were shown going to
the Stock Exchange as _pifferari_; but no matter, none will sleep worse
for it. I have accepted Cassell's proposal as an amendment to one of
mine; that _D. B._ is to be brought out first under the title _Catriona_
without pictures; and, when the hour strikes, _Kidnapped_ and _Catriona_
are to